The present invention relates to touch fasteners and, more particularly though not exclusively, to an attachment system for attachment of a quiet hook and loop touch fastener material to a surface such that a reduced sound level is produced during rapid separation of the touch fastener by comparison with prior art attachment systems.
The term "touch fastener", as employed in this application, comprises two components, namely, a first planar backing material having a surface carrying hooks, mushrooms, balls on stems, pigtails, or the like, capable of engaging loops, hooks, mushrooms, balls on stems, pigtails, or the like, carried by a second planar backing material to releasably fasten items together, such as those products sold by the assignee of the present invention under the trademark VELCRO.
Touch fastener materials have grown rapidly in public acceptance and their uses appear unlimited. Unlike other devices such as zippers, and the like which require proper alignment and component tolerances to operate and not jam, touch fasteners are virtually indestructible and need only be pressed together with mating surfaces in contact with one another to effect attachment. For belts, and the like, they provide infinite adjustment capabilities. All this is to say that they are very well suited for military applications where such qualities are important and appreciated.
Unfortunately, touch fastener materials according to the prior art have suffered from a single drawback which has caused concern in some military applications as well as annoyance to certain other users--noise upon separation. Typical VELCRO brand hook and loop type touch fastener material and the noise associated therewith is shown in simplified form in FIGS. 1-3. As depicted in FIG. 1, the touch fastener material 10 comprises a first planar backing material 12 having an engaging elements thereon comprising, for example, resiliently flexible J-shaped hooks 14 attached to the backing material 12 at discrete points. Touch fastener material 10 also includes a second planar backing material 16 having mating elements thereon such as, for example, loops 18. The touch fastener material 10 is releasably engaged by pressing the hooks 14 into engagement with the loops 18 where they are ensnared to hold the two portions together as shown in FIG. 2. Like zippers and their characteristic "zipping" noise, conventional touch fastener materials are easily identified by their characteristic "ripping" noise 20 when the two portions are peeled apart as depicted in FIG. 3.
The problem of noise produced by a touch fastener is addressed in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 921,731 filed on Oct. 20, 1986, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,068 assigned to the assignee of the present application. However, when a quiet touch fastener, as disclosed in that application, is attached to a garment or other member, such as a pocket closure, it has been found that much of the "noise" reduction achieved by the techniques of said application are lost due to the secondary noise emission of the garment when the fastener components are separated. This is a result of the prior art modes of connection, e.g. stitching, glue, etc., which directly couple the touch fastener backing to the garment whereby noise producing energy is readily transmitted therebetween. Such prior art connections negate, to a large extent, the noise reduction achieved in the quiet touch fastener itself.
Wherefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an attachment system for attaching a touch fastener, especially a quiet touch fastener, to a member so that the touch fastener is isolated or decoupled from the attached member to thereby decrease the amount of noise producing energy transmitted to the member and reduce the amount of noise produced by the member upon separation of its attached touch fastener.
A further object is to provide a touch fastener which is attached to a member wherein a substantial portion of the noise producing energy transmitted to the member is damped or absorbed to thereby reduce the amount of noise generated by the member upon separation of its attached touch fastener.